Would Anyone Play a Longbow/PPD AT?

Well yes. But you very, VERY rarely (If ever, actually) have Traditionalists fighting Restructurists. At other times, its only troops from one faction. Ergo, there would be no speech.

Your point is good, though; there should be speech where appropriate. And badly done humour is not approriate.

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Actually, the transition seemed to start earlier than that.
At first, the Rikti seemed to use a consistent sentence structure. Then later on, word order suddenly seemed to become in flux. At least that's how I perceived it.

It gave the impression that the writer(s) of the new Rikti dialogue wasn't involved with the initial design of the Rikti "language", and tried to preserve the general (superficial) appearance of the language, without actually keeping any consistent sentence structure.

Of course, it could have also just been a fluke.

Do I get to keep the over powered abilities?

Only if the secondary is a Ranged/Armor set that uses the PPD Shell/Hardsuit. That's the whole reason why I want a PPD Epic AT (well that and the chance for the Awakened branch to do Peacebringers differently).

For BToBS maybe a powerset version of sands of Mu? Sounds like something people from an Egyptian desert would use...

Also RIP AT anyone?

same from my experience .


that would be awesome .

i would seriously pay for something like that if it was some sort of costume power set pack thing .

mm->http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Powered_Armor_Cops


pets->http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Paragon_...nt#Enemy_types
or
pets->http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Drones

Heh...so true dat. And here's why;

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...heatingBastard

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

People will always complain about everything. That's such a cornerstone fact of life it may as well be ignored. It's not a question of the existence of such complaining, but more the fact that it has persisted strongly very much since I7. The argument that the new contacts do not fit people's concepts is especially empty because the same argument has been made about co-op contacts ever since they were introduced.

The point in adding villain-only content is actually two-fold. On the one hand, villains need more content for the sake of parity. Content right now is very lopsided and slated towards heroes. On the other hand, villain-side-only content tends to be written with more focus and more creative freedom. It's not a question of fitting villains better, it's a question of not having to make excuses and be playable by so many different levels of morality. You can't do the classic comic book villainy tasks like overthrowing your own nation, building clone factories or robbing banks in co-op content, because heroes have to do it, too, ending up creating content that has no soul.

As far as villain-side content being better than hero-side content, this is not going to become true just because people keep insisting on it. SOME villain-side arcs are better than SOME hero-side arcs, but this is by no means a global phenomenon. Villain-side arcs like Angelo Vendetti's, Darla Mavis', Operative Kirkland's and so forth are just... Ugh! If City of Heroes arcs have padding, those arcs ARE padding. Hell, take the Shadowy Figure - all of his arcs are meaningless and accomplish nothing other than meta-game wealth. I'll take City of Heroes' content every time, because even though a lot of its arcs aren't that good, there are so many that I never get bogged down replaying the same content.

I firmly believe that one full Issue with primarily villain content, say a new non-Arachnos island, several story arcs and adding a REAL storyline to the Soldiers of Arachnos like what Kheldians got with I4 (seriously, that was, what, 10-15 arcs?), would be very good for the game. People would complain, obviously, but I still fell it would make City of Villains feel ever so slightly less like City of Heroes Lite.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

...What sort of glutton for punishment are you? Oo The old Hero content is HORRIBLE. And I dont even mean that in a story sense. Some of the story stuff is quite cool, but it's hamstrung, gutted and filleted by absolutely atrocious mission setting.
A typical bluside arc, after you have exhausted The Hollows and Faultline;

-Defeat All
-Defeat All
-Hunt X (usually 30 or something)
-Defeat All
-Defeat All
-Talky over the other side of the freaking city, usually someone who you should be able to call...
-Huge map, Defeat All
-Huge map, Defeat All
-Defeat All

Or, in the case of PI arc;

-Huge, outdoor map, Defeat All. Random AV spawn
-Repeat 5-6 times
-Hunt 60 somethings
-Repeat
-Return to Outdoor map cycle

It just...ow...just ow. The very thought of it hurts me.

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I completely agree with this, if for no reason other than because that's how the Rikti were originally designed. There was an old City of Heroes mission where the Freakshow fight the Rikti, and the entry text says something to the effect of "The Freakshow shout and taunt while the Rikti fight in eerie silence."

THIS is how an invading force of scary homicidal aliens is supposed to act like. They have these helmets that hide their faces, those huge oddly-shaped heads and they don't speak. This is the very basis of establishing them as scary aliens. They need to feel like they wouldn't or couldn't speak to you, like they have no emotions, like they couldn't be reasoned with. That's why they should have been left in complete silence. In fact, they used to be in the old content. In the old arcs, the Rikti never speak. Ever. They have no dialogue, their ambushes do not announce themselves, they never leave "he said" clues. In fact, the first time I found someone who speaks (that is, C'Khelka), I was shocked. They had been so mysterious up to that point that I wasn't even sure they could speak at all, let alone trying to guess HOW they would speak. It was something of a first contact.

Now the Rikti are throwing around unfunny jokes and quips, talking among each other, talking to THEMSELVES, speaking with players for no real reason... Their mystery is gone. And it sucks. As far as I'm concerned, the Rikti should be treated like the Borg - scary aliens that wouldn't even acknowledge you exist unless you get in their way, at which point they'd sooner shoot you than speak with you. They should never, ever speak unless it is ABSOLUTELY necessary in order for them to accomplish something critical to THEIR agenda. Seriously, to have Budekka... Sorry, Bu'Deka do a valley girl stand-up about how boring Herodotus or whatever his Rikti name is is just... Lame.

And again, can we please cut it out with the lame pun Rikti names? I fail to take them seriously when most of what they do is sketches and stand-up.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Actually, you're the one who proves Vanguard's guilt by raiding a Longbow base. What more proof do Longbow need than Vanguard operatives being sanctioned to attack a Longbow base in full force. Yeah, Gaussian's half-hearted advise to take it easy rings kind of hollow, considering half the time he's sending convicted murderes, complete monsters and sadistic bastards in to attack them, and me being me, I follow meta-game mission structure and "defeat" all Longbow on the way.

Seriously, it'd take less than that that courtmarshal people, but because Vanguard are a UN-sanctioned organisation, neither the US government nor Longow (nor indeed anyone at all whatsoever) has the power to hold them responsible, but you can hardly blame Miss Liberty for flying off the handle when one of her completely legal installations in Paragon City was illegally raided by a paramilitary private organisation with questionable employment policies.

*edit*
Ugh... Stupid forum software! Why does it keep taking me pages and pages back, insisting that a post I read two days ago is the newest unread post in the thread? It marks posts THAT I MADE as unread, and I'm pretty sure I read what I write! Argh!

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

The Villain arcs do tend to be (sometimes far) less complex (in terms of number of missions and travel, not story), but there is great content on both sides. Personally I feel that there is a greater concentration of "good" arcs Villain-side, and that many of the really good arcs show up there, but that's a fairly subjective thing. (One notable exception is the EAT arcs. The HEAT arcs give an interesting story, while the VEAT arcs are, to put it mildly, lackluster)


Regarding adding new faction-limited content, a common objection is that dual-faction content reaches more people, and is thus more "efficient" to add. However, content does not really need to satisfy characters, it's there for the *players*. While there are some players that choose to exclusively play one faction, most players I know do in fact play both Heroes and Villains (this would actually be an interesting statistic to look at - how many players play exclusively one faction?). There is of course the possibility that dual-faction content will be played more times per player for some subset of the players, but at least most players would get to experience the content either way.

(side note: the most "effective" way to give single-faction players more content is to get them to start playing the other faction too. This will of course not be a viable option for some players, but it seems that there are some players that pretty much stick to one faction because of inertia)

Having content limited to one faction gives more freedom to customize the content to said faction, and often this can give "better" (at least in the sense that they're better suited to that faction) arcs. It is of course also possible to make good dual-faction content, but I feel that it's nice to have a mix of the two. Personally, I don't mind in the least if some issues are "Hero-focused" and some are "Villain-focused", because either way, I'm going to play through the new content with multiple characters.

Co-Op *zones* do in fact have a major benefit in that they can host Co-Op TFs. This can make it much easier to start up TFs (particularly villain-side), especially on the smaller servers. Then again, this is less of an issue when the high-level TFs don't require a big team (and some of the later high-level TFs don't).
It also gives players more leeway in choosing characters to use for a TF, and that's also a plus. Still, faction-specific zones could be pretty neat too...

Co-op zones can also host co-op TEAMS, which gives players more leeway in choosing characters, and makes it easier to form up a team, especially for villains. Hopefully this will be less of an issue after Going Rogue, if enough players choose an alignment that allows them to team with both factions.

(If it wasn't for that pesky "concept" thing I wouldn't keep a single character restricted to teaming with one faction after Going Rogue. And I am perfectly happy to solo so I'm not part of the "I can't find a team" chorus.)

Yeah, that's true. I'm not sure how much GR is going to help though. It's also *possible* that a number of players will migrate away from one faction (Villains probably being the most likely candidate for that), which could make it even harder to find teams in some zones. Time will tell how things work out though.


Honestly I've never been a fan of the concept of side-switching (too many things that can go wrong or just plain be weird). The system as it has been presented so far does seem to have potential though, so hopefully things will work out for the best.

Yeah, it's almost like they've spent the better part of the last decade or two being forced to interact with humans. Humans who they might find strangely familiar. That's all I'll say without a big SPOILER tag, though honestly anybody who doesn't know what I'm talking about at this point... meh.

In short, my impression was very different from yours, in that I saw it as the Rikti actively trying to sound more human, in their interactions with humans. I didn't really notice them talking to one another.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but...

I'd rather that than what it does to me: Mark's EVERYTHING read when I log in...about 30% of the time. Nothing more fun than coming in on a Monday morning and seeing "No New Posts" since I left Friday night, despite seeing right there on the front page post dates of that day.

I'm assured by our crack web team that this is caused by the highly unusual browser set up I use -- Firefox with NoScript and AdBlockPlus.

Still NOTHING from you, mister! DISH on the concept, backstory, and powers already! You can't come in here throwing stuff like that around! Paging Manticore, paging Manticore!

Yes. And it STILL doesnt make any damn sense.
The Lineage of War shouldnt WANT to be human. They are 'superior' to the lowly Earth scum, and will conquer them without mercy. Why the heck would they want to bring themself down to that level?

The Traditionalists, what little you see of them, I guess makes a tiny bit more sense, in that they want to ease out the relationship with humanity, but even so, bad humour is not the way to do it. Thats just bad writing.

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

So that's why. I get the same thing, and it's quite aggravating. I use the boards a lot less since the changeover since there's no way to reliably tell what's new.

I don't suppose that crack web team has offered you a workaround?

I see this also, and I have the same setup.

Lewis